Starting Mic Pre Search...ideas?

I record in my home studio. I play rock music. Nothing "pretty" is going through my signal chain. It's loud guitars and loud vocals. Let me give you a list of my mics, and the stuff I have already, then if you could suggest a couple mic pre options to me, I'd appreciate it.

I'm kind of leaning toward the Great River single-channel mic pre (1NV-something?) but wonder if I'm missing anything.

Grace 101 Avalon M5 There are so many good choices, including the Great River, if you can book time in a high end commercial studio, that has some of this gear, it would be worth the one or two hours to help refine your decison.

My rock band is making a CD with a bunch of mics (assorted dynamics & condensers for drums, guitars, vocals) and some "direct in" (PODxt for some guitar parts & for the bass) using a Firepod preamp --> Nuendo. Nothing fancy. Don't need anything fancy for Rock Music, IMO.

The Great River is an excellent choice. There are other high end pres that I'm sure would also do a great job (Manley, Chandler, Neve, etc...), but I don't think you would regret the NV for a great all around pre. I've used mine on electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals, drums, and as a DI for bass. I've been really happy with it. The advice to try a few out before you buy is really the way to go...

Thanks for the advice, guys. Now my concerns are whether to get the single-channel model or the dual-channel model. I know, twice the money, but I wonder if I'll regret not getting the 2NV in the future.

i love the chandler tg2 for guitars. it's just 2 channels of straight high gain, amazing sounding mic pre with a very nice di. great with ribbon mics. i use it way more than the 1073 or tube pres i have for electric guitar. it sounds amazing. you can vary the coloration by the amount of gain you use vs the output knob. to me, having at least two channels would be pretty damn important. do you ever want to use two mics on your guitars? ever record in stereo with two amps?

the api suggestion is a good one too, but it's a little more complicated. you could get a lunchbox and add channels as you need them.

the great river is fine but you may be spending more on one channel than you need to. the preamp section is not better than the chandler tg2, but it does have eq (if it's the one im thinking of). i think i prefer the pre in the tg2 to the great river. but all the ones mentioned are really great.

do you like to track with eq? if not, the only reason to get a highend pre with eq is if you plan to mix OTB in your studio. I often track vox with eq, but almost never guitars (sometimes acoustic gtr, tho even there I try to get it right with mic placement). I would much much rather have a nice mic pre and a nice compressor to track with. I track vox and acoustic guitar and bass with compression a lot.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll look into the Chandler unit. Two channels would be nice. I have the RNP and it has two channels. I guess where I'm coming from is that if I'm going to cough up the bucks, I don't want any excuses. That is, I'd rather have to blame myself for getting ****** sounds than have to blame the equipment.

That said, I plan (for at least until I learn more about recording) to mix inside the box. I've got a 16-channel mixer but I think things would be cleaner if I stay inside the computer once I get there.

I can also highly recommend Brent Averill. He may not be well known in prosumer circles but engineering professionals have known and loved his products for decades. If you decide to got the neve or api clone route, check out his stufff here:

I did the same thing. I have a bunch of mid level pre's but wanted one good mic pre and compressor. So I bucked up and bought a Manley single pre and a Distressor. Get yourself a sweetwater card, wait until they do a zero promotion offer, and bite the bullet. The actually have one going right now.

The Manley is amazing. So warm and rich you'd think you were drinking the greatest cup of coffee ever. But seriously, it's a great tube pre. It will do wonders for the digital recording. I love it on everything I can use it on. And with the distressor I get some great sounding vocals without even trying hard and no EQ.

My other Pre's are the Rolls/Bellari RP220s. 3 Dual channels. I take out the crappy stock tubes and replace them with any nice NOS tubes I can get my hands on. RCA blackplates, Telefunkens, or Mullards. Little trick I learned from an engineer I worked with once.

I also have a Joe Meek VC1. Eh... I don't know. It's okay. I haven't figured out what people love these for.